Death and Despair
by tiarnan
Summary: My name is Annabeth Chase and I died at the age of 19. My whole life all I had ever known was pain and suffering. I watched countless people die right before my very own eyes, but never once had I ever pondered the thought of my own death. But here I am now most certainly dead. And here I am dead and condemned to punishment for all eternity. I should have gone to Elysium with Percy


**Sorry about any typo's or errors in this. In case you are wandering, it is meant to be a bit OOC. Please enjoy!**

**I would just like to warn you that this story is going to be depressing/morbid so please read at your own risk.**

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**Annabeth**

All I knew was Silence. There was nothing else. I was almost certain I was dead.

I had no idea how or why. I didn't know when or where, all I knew was that, I was dead.

My name is Annabeth Chase and I died at the age of 19. My whole life all I had ever known was pain and suffering, but then again that's just part of being a demi-god. I watched countless people die right before my very own eyes, but never once had I ever pondered the thought of my own death. But here I am now, most certainly dead, stuck in a void full of grey swirling mist- the void of nothingness, the void of emptiness. My story is a tragic tale that is very dark and depressing, this is my story.

All alone I stood standing outside in the cold grey swirling mist. Was I lost? I asked myself. I had no idea where I was, or who I was. The only thing I remembered was my name, Annabeth Chase. Other than that frail tiny thread connecting me to my past life, nothing else was clear. It was all grey and swirling just like the mist surrounding me. Every time I began to piece tiny details together everything crumbled apart as if fate was against me knowing anything about my past life. I was dead. It took everything in me not to fade into the grey swirling mist around me. Instead I put one foot infront of the other and continued walking forward, to whatever was awaiting me, if there even was anything awaiting me.

Death, most people are afraid of it. Me, I don't know. It's kind of hard to just pin-point one particular emotion at a time. There is fear, curiosity, anger, denial and guilt but mixed into one emotion which is numbness. A part of me wanted to get into a fetal position and break down crying. I had every right to do so. Obviously there were people I'd left behind when I died.

There was my mum, my dad, my family and friends, but the worst bit, was I didn't know who they were. I had no idea what they looked like. I wandered if I even had a special boy in my life too.

It was all too much, I couldn't handle it. A tiny tear slid right down the side of my face, falling into the vast abyss surrounding me. The second each tear made contact, the swirling mist in front of me began dissolving. I had come to terms with my early demise. I was letting every single emotion out of my body through the form of tears which sizzled when they hit the ground beneath me and with every single tear, came a new memory.

I heard a warm voice from the distance saying my name. The voice got closer and closer until it was right next to me, speaking into my ear, saying "Annabeth" before pulling me into a tight embrace.

Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon and most importantly, love of my life. "Seaweed brain" I said giddily as I wrapped my arms around his neck. "Where are we and what are you doing here?" I asked. "Same as you, I guess. As to where we are, I don't know" Percy admitted sheepishly. "My gut instinct is just to keep going forward" Percy continued. "After you?" Annabeth asked before grabbing his hand and following him into the mist.

As we continued walking further and further into the mist, a large building came into view. DOA RECORDING STUDIOS, the sign said. "Hey, do you remember when we were twelve? You me and Grover tried to sneak into the underworld through here and we said we had drowned in a bathtub" Percy exclaimed. "Those were the days" Annabeth laughed before pushing the door open and walked in with Percy.

I looked around the room trying to see if anything had changed since we were last here but nothing had. on either sides of the room were black couches with several people packed on them, obviously bored and scared out of their minds. In the far corner was a potted cactus and in the middle of the room was a raised podium. Yep, no change here Annabeth thought.

On the Podium, Charon sat sprawled out across the chair with his feet up on the podium playing on his IPad in his usual grey Italian suit.

Percy and I approached slowly as Charon continued to play some game on his IPad, not even noticing us. I let out a little cough to get his attention. He raised his head and looked at me with his eyes that were blacker then midnight that appeared to be staring right into my soul.

"Seriously, you again?!" he spat. "I thought you two died years ago. If I remember correctly, you drowned in the bathtub? Now you come here to annoy me further?! Thanks to you two bothering me I just lost this level on Candy Crush. What nerve! Don't you two know who I am? I'm lord Charon. Tremble before the name" he yelled, causing a few of the people in the waiting room to turn and look. "Yeah, sorry, but no. You see you aren't even a god" Percy began saying before stepped on his foot and gave him a 'Shut up before I murder you look'. It was sad and ironic, considering the fact we were already dead.

"Payment" Charon said bored while holding out his hand. Percy fished through his pocket looking for something to pay for our 'taxi ride' to the underworld and sadly looked at me and shook his head in dismay.

"No, payment, no entry. Not my problem. Sit over there away from me and rot for eternity until I feel generous enough to give you free passage into the underworld. Oh wait, your dead. Your bodies are already rotting in the ground, decaying. Maybe in one hundred years your bones will be the only thing left of you" Charon chuckled. "You forget that we're demi-gods. We don't get burried when we die, we have our shroud burnt" Percy said coldly while giving Charon a murderous look. "Percy, let's just go sit down" Annabeth said. "Yes, please do that. The very sight of your presence is revolting enough" Charon scoffed.

Percy and Annabeth walked off and took a seat. When Annabeth knew she was out of Charon's earshot, she whispered to Percy "just don't say anything else to him ok? With our luck and your comments, were going to be stuck here for the next millennium. Do you really want that?" Annabeth asked."No" Percy replied.

"Wait, check your pockets" Percy said. Annabeth fished through her pocket and found two golden denary and showed Percy with delight. "How did you know?" Percy asked amazed. "I didn't but with everyone who wants to kill us, I thought it would be worthwhile carrying them with me" Annabeth explained. "Oh my gods, Annabeth you're a genius!" Percy cried before pulling her into a hug. "So what do you say about paying now?" Percy asked. Annabeth nodded with agreement before walking up and giving Charon the payment.

Charon took the money and got up from the podium and said "All right, all of you runts that have paid for passage, follow me! Those who haven't don't even think about trying to escape into the underworld with everyone else or touch my IPad! If I find out any of you have touched it, I will make you wait for another century before I allow you to pass into the land of the dead!"

"That's us", Percy said before grabbing Annabeth's hand and leading her towards the elevator. "Annabeth, you never told me who did this to you. Who killed you?" To be honest I didn't know how to answer his question nor did I know what he was talking about. "Look, Percy. I have no idea what your even talking about. I don't even remember any of the details. And what do you mean by, 'who did this to you?' I don't understand. What do you mean? I whispered to him. "Your neck" Percy said while making a slicing motion over his neck.

I slowly put my hand to my neck to see what he was talking about and I felt a sharp sting of pain. I abruptly jolted my hand back and noticed it was covered in warm dark crimson, sticky blood. I knew straight away that all the blood had drained out of my face and I probably looked as white as a ghost. Instantly, I regretted the thought. I was a ghost.

After everyone had filed their way inside the elevator, it finally slowly began to go down. Annabeth began to slowly stroke Percy's cheek and ran over what felt like a burn mark. Annabeth looked in absolute horror and felt ashamed that she had failed to notice this before. "OH my Gods Percy! In the name of Tartarus, what happened to you?"

Percy mouthed one word, fire.

The elevator filled with grey mist as it began to morph into a barge on the river Styx. As this happened, whatever clothes they were wearing seemed to morph into long grey robes. Charon's suit had turned into a black robe and his face became skeletal as if he had been dead for a millennia.

We were riding down the Styx. It was filled with swirling black water and was polluted with trash of every single broken dream or promise. Stalactites hung from the cavernous ceiling, threatening to collapse and impale them any old tick of the clock. As the barge went further downstream, the palace of Hades loomed into sight. It was exactly how Annabeth had envisioned hell to be like.

The barge stopped at the rocky shore and everyone began to get off the barge and head down towards the judgment pavilion. Before Annabeth and Percy could get off, Charon pulled them aside and said, "You two had better be dead this time. If I ever see you ever again, I will personally kill you two".

Percy and I jumped off of the barge and started to head towards the Judgment pavilion and jumped into the ATTENDANT ON DUTY line. "Hey, what are you so worried about?" Percy asked. You know you have nothing to be scared about? We're both going to be going to Elysium, right?".

Deep down, I was really scared. What if I got sent to the fields of Asphodel or the fields of punishment? I thought to myself. Wouldn't it just be easier to grab Percy's hand and dragged him into the EZ DEATH line? It would be quicker and this way, it would be guaranteed we wouldn't be sent to eternal punishment. But then again why would we be?

I had no idea that the line had already moved forward as I was so deep in thought that one of the security ghouls came up and yelled "What do you think you're doing?! Move along" he screamed as he shoved me forwards. I let loose a whimper of pain as he pushed me forawrds. Percy arced up and yelled "What do you think you're doing?! HOW DARE YOU PUSH MY GIRLFRIEND!"

My heart fluttered as she say Percy stand up for her like that. Gods, he was so brave and bold to do that because it was likely to get him sent to the fields of punishment. "Do we have a problem here" the security ghoul asked. "No", I muttered. "I'm fine Percy. Now let's keep moving" I said.

Soon enough, Percy and I were at the front of the line. The panic inside of me was threatening to take over. I didn't know how much more I could take of this. I felt like running, but then where would that get me? Probably in the fields of Punishments.

"Think nice happy thoughts" Percy whispered before pulling me into an embrace and giving me a quick kiss. "You'll be fine. The only person you need to be wary of is King Minos" Percy said.

"Your next", the security ghoul said as he pushed me forward towards the entrance into the dark tent that was the judgment pavilion. Percy screamed from behind "HEY! YOU CAN'T TOUCH HER LIKE THAT!" before the security ghoul me inside after beating Percy to a pulp.

I tried to run back outside, but the doors had shut and were sealed tight. From outside, I heard screams from Percy as they continued to beat him up. I smashed against the door, desperately trying to make it budge to no avail before I heard the deep of one of the judges.

"Sit Annabeth Chase" he said. I knew it wasn't King Minos because I had previously met him and this didn't sound like his voice. It had to be either Thomas Jefferson or William Shakespeare. I couldn't tell, because they were all wearing brown robes that covered their faces. "I said sit, Annabeth Chase" The same person said.

"You have already been enough trouble tonight. One of us already wants to send you to Punishment, and trust me you aren't making a very good impression on me or Shakespeare" Thomas Jefferson said.

Thomas Jefferson pulled out a notebook and began reading out of it. "Is it true that your responsible for the murder or Perseus Jackson?". I was rattled to the core. What on earth were they talking about? Surely they had made some sort of mistake. "Pardon, could you please read that again. I don't think I heard you properly" I said. "No, you heard clearly, Ms Chase. Did you or did you not murder Perseus Jackson?".

"What? No" I stammered. "Why on earth would I ever do that? I said. From the judges podium, I heard King Minos mumble, "She is clearly in denial. I say send her to the fields of punishment". heard Shakespeare agree before Thomas Jefferson said " We should at least show her, there is no need to send her to the fields of punishment, because the guilt will surely destroy her" he muttered. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. What in Tartarus were these guys on? Why would I ever do such things? I asked myself.

Shakespeare then proceeded to grab a remote to a projector and turned it on. Footage began playing before me. Percy and I were staying in New Rome at Camp-Jupiter after the war with Gaea had finished. Percy had asked her to go into town and get some dinner for them. It showed me buying us Italian food from this nice restaurant and bringing it back to where we were staying. It then showed me walking inside the villa that Percy and I were renting and finding him and Reyna making out on the couch.

I was so shocked that I dropped the food and the bottle of wine I had bought home with me and before Percy and Reyna could say anything I ran out crying and Out of rage, I grabbed a box of matches and lit one and let the house go down in flames with Percy and Reyna inside. However, it also showed that I got out before the blaze burnt everything in sight. It then showed later on that night, that I grabbed out a kitchen knife and slit my throat. Instantly, I dropped to the floor dead.

The Projection then turned off and Shakespeare said "Do you have anything to say?". Of Course I did. That couldn't have been me or Percy. For starters Percy would never cheat on me and two, I would never, ever do that. There had to be some sort of mistake.

I tried to speak up but my voice failed and my knees began to crumble from underneath me. By the time I finally spoke the Judges had already decided my fate. Simultaneously, they all said "Punishment".

I just lay there, unable to digest anything that I saw. This, it was a night mare come true. Had I actually killed Percy? Gods, no. There is no way in Tartarus I would ever do that. I finally spoke up and said "Please, please you can't send me there. I didn't do that, I swear. I swear on the Styx that wasn't me. Please, please, don't send me there" I begged.

"Enough, Ms Chase! All that comes from your mouth is lies. You saw what you did, then you still want to deny it and then you have the nerve to swear upon the Styx that you didn't do it" Shakespeare yelled. "Guards!", King Minos yelled. Two heavily armored Ghouls marched in and one grabbed me by the wrist while the other started to beat me to a pulp. I was then beaten unconscious and dragged out of the Judgment Pavilion to whatever punishments awaited me.

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**Please review if you would like to see more.**


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